Petra Griffith launched Wedbush Ventures to foster the next generation of technology companies solving big market problems. Having built many firsts - the first online printing software, first fitness wearable, first native ads - and ushered a bank into the age of technology, Petra understands the strategic and creative mindset necessary to narrow in on a product’s core features for successful market fit.
Her past leadership to product, strategy, marketing, and operations teams at established and startup organizations like Netflix, Yahoo!, and 24 Hour Fitness makes Petra a coveted product strategy ally to entrepreneurs ready to scale innovation.
Howie works to identify and evaluate promising early-stage technology and consumer centric companies. He conducts diligence on all potential investments as well as helps quarterback general operations and strategy for ABV.
Howie delivers expertise in many facets of business while bringing a hard core entrepreneurial perspective. Howie was previously on the founding team of a Y-Combinator backed biotech startup called Immunity Project and is currently a mentor at 500 Startups and Runway Innovation Hub.
He was a featured judge on Season 2 of Gimlet Media’s thepitch.vc podcast.
Kelly is the Managing General Partner of Moonshots Capital - an early stage VC fund that invests in early stage technology companies and leans in heavily in veteran founded companies.
Howard is primarily focused on sourcing new investments and working with Morpheus portfolio companies. He currently serves on the Board of Tagnos and DarkLight.
Dean Kline is co-founder, fund manager and managing director for Penn Venture Partners, a venture capital firm. He is also a managing member of the fund’s general partner. In addition, Kline is a board director for several companies: Corporate University Xchange, the Harrisburg Senators, Journal Publications, Probity MT, and Thermacore.
As Principal at Sway Ventures, Brett Munster focuses most of his investment activities on the seed and earlier stages for the fund. In addition to evaluating new investments, Brett’s responsibilities include coordinating the due diligence process across all investment opportunities for the fund, monitoring performance of the fund and modeling portfolio allocation, and working directly with many of Sway’s existing portfolio companies.
Brandon Maier is the founder of Lvlup Ventures and has extensive experience building financial and marketing strategies for startup companies.
Melinda Moore is the Co-Founder of TuesdayNights. She is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and global speaker with over 20 years of experience, and two exits (STV Communications and LovingEco). Melinda is the author of How to Raise Money: The Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding and has raised over 100 million via equity crowdfunding.
She served as the Senior Vice President for Entertainment Media Ventures. Her work has been widely recognized by Digital LA (Top 50 Digital Women in 2015), the Green Business Bureau and the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Hall of Fame. Melinda serves on the Board of A Sense of Home and has a B.A. from UCLA.
I’m inspired every day by the creativity and boldness of strong founders. Seeing founders achieve the impossible, simply because they don’t live within traditional limits, always excites and inspires me. After exiting China Export Finance, I took 3 years and focused on working with a portfolio of young technology companies to help them along the journey to build their businesses.
During that time, I was exposed to both inspiring talent and a wide set of challenges that really opened my eyes—to the unique nature of every business, yes, but also to the problems and solutions they often had in common.
Working with these founders not only grounded me as a mentor, but also provided me with countless insights and significant growth that prepared me for my tenure at Digital Ocean, where I was able to leverage my 20 years of experience and build the company from the ground up—ultimately reaching 500+ employees and over $200M in revenue.
I’m thrilled to be able to share this playbook of knowledge and experience with M13’s partner entrepreneurs, across every stage of growth.
Christine Harada is President of i(x) investments. Ms. Harada has over 20 years of success in leading government and management consulting organizations.
Rick Smith is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of CrossCut Ventures. CrossCut is an early-stage venture capital with over $200 million under management.
Drew Leahy is the Managing Partner and Cofounder of Hawke Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund that focuses on consumer and technology that powers consumer.
Elaine is a Partner with PLG Ventures focused on early stage tech investing in Southern CA. She started her career in investment banking at JPMorgan in NYC and worked in M&A within the CPG industry before receiving her MBA at Kellogg. Elaine then spent the past 10 years working within the startup industry in San Francisco and Chicago.
Mark is a Partner at the AET Fund, and early stage fund of Akatsuki Inc focused on the future of media and entertainment. Prior to AET Fund, Linao was a senior multi-disciplined engineer at aerospace and defense firm Raytheon. He has also worked at the Rubicon Project and Amazon. After that, Linao was an Associate at Technicolor Ventures eventually transitioning to Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Technicolor.
Minnie is a long-time Silicon Valley product leader and operations executive with experience building and scaling impact through elegant technical solutions and great teams. She recently moved back to LA after 20+ years in the Bay Area and is excited to be a part of the growing tech ecosystem of Southern California.
Chris holds a diverse range of investment and consulting experience in areas including SaaS, consumer marketplace, entertainment, and real estate technologies.